Mar. 2—Israel on Monday launched a new scheme for travellers coming to the country at a time when the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is on a resurgence across the world. The authorities are giving them bracelets which will exempt them from being sent to a quarantine hotel.
Israel obliges everyone arriving from overseas, apart from those who have already had the Covid-19 illness or received vaccines against it, to undergo a two-week quarantine in a hotel paid for by the state.
The bracelet scheme launched on Monday at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport will allow people to quarantine at home instead.
Here's everything you need to know about the scheme:
* The pilot programme began on Monday with 100 tracking systems given to incoming travellers at Ben Gurion Airport. The bracelet will notify authorities if the travellers violate a mandatory isolation period.
* The system includes an electronic bracelet, a smartphone and a wall-mounted tracker.
* The slim and lightweight bracelet is waterproof too.
* The system alerts the authorities if someone removes the bracelet or ventures too far from the home monitor.
* The bracelet has been manufactured by SuperCom, which said in a statement that there is a potential for the pilot to quickly expand into a project consisting of thousands of units for more wide scale use to assist in quarantine compliance in Israel. The company's CEO Ordan Trabelsi told Jerusalem Post that they have named it "Freedom Bracelet".
* The pilot project was launched on a day when Israel's top court ruled that the government must curb its use of the domestic spy agency to track coronavirus infections. It said that "draconian" surveillance constituted a blow to democracy.
* The Israeli government began using the Shin Bet's surveillance technologies in March 2020, when Covid-19 infections began to spike.
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